In 1852, when Abraham Lincoln was a railroad lawyer with an uncertain future, the Religious Tract Society of London published "The Believer's Daily Treasure." Small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, this vest-pocket book arranged snippets from Scripture for every day in the year. The 366 brief passages—including one for leap years—came straight from the King James Bible.
A copy of "The Believer's Daily Treasure" crossed the Atlantic and found its way into Lincoln's possession. The poet and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg speculated that it was a gift from Mary Todd Lincoln, who may have wanted her husband to carry it as he traveled from town to town on the Illinois Eighth Judicial Circuit. But this was only a guess: "How Abraham Lincoln acquired his copy of the devotional," wrote Sandburg, "we do not know."
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